Back up 2013

This is the first of my 2013 year in review.  I kinda hate those that I see on TV but I feel I want to do this anyway.

I spent the afternoon making backup DVD's of my photos and sketches.  You are making backups aren't you?  It's not whether your hard disc will fail, it's when.  Anything that is important needs to have a backup.  My husband, the IT pro, also says that the backups should be in multiples, in at least 2 different media and one of them off site.

Thus, my method is to back up to an external hard disk all year long.  I also make 2 DVD copies, one of which is stored in our safety deposit box.

This year, the photos required 8 DVD's which each hold 4.7 gigs.  That's 37.6 gigs of photos.  My sketches took another DVD themselves.


 
I'm glad that's done!  Next will be my collection of sketchbooks and journals for 2013.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas Eve

Early today, I watched the recorded PBS show, Christmas in Norway with the St. Olaf ChoirThis particular pairing of songs was very evocative:  "How a Rose e’re Blooming" and "The Rose" sung alternating, each by a different choir.

 It can be seen here and that pairing of songs is at about 32:20.

 Info from the album:
 Lo, How a Rose e’er Blooming / The Rose
Michael Praetorius / Amanda McBroom, arr. Craig Hella Johnson
(5:30)

I tried to find a place to buy just that one piece, but the album is not on the usual places that sell individual songs.

I've mostly just been listening to Christmas music and reading a book on location sketching.

Later, I sketched a Christmas bunny:

Snow

This is the first snow my area just south of Seattle has had since 18 December 2012.  And that was the only snow the winter of 2012-2013 had.    This bit of snow is more than there was on that previous date, but not by much.  Rain is predicted for noon and it will all go away.  It's been above freezing since I got up.  These were taken about 0830.

The backyard gnomes have snow beards this morning.

A few more photos are here. 

Thanksgiving and onward

Our Thanksgiving was very quietly thankful.  We had a relaxing day at home.  We did cook up a dinner more special than usual but not the whole turkey and fixings extravaganza. 

I fast-forwarded through the dog show on TV, only watching those breeds/sections in which I was most interested.  As in, I skipped the Toy division. 

On Black Friday I completely avoided shopping.   I only left the house to pick up Wolf's eye drops as he can't drive yet. 

We watched NOVA's re-examination of the evidence about the JFK assassination.  They showed the few seconds of shooting footage that was never shown at the time.  Yikes, it was graphic! 

Over the past few days we've talked to some close friends on the phone.  It was good to catch up.  And we should do it more often. 

I gathered up the leftovers from my Etsy shop and donated it all to one of the charity shops.  I then made a trip to Tinkertopia in Tacoma to donate a bunch of odd bits they can sell for upcycled crafts projects.  My arts blog has gotten more views than ever today as a result of Tinkertopia tweeting my sketch of their Little Free Library!

I drove Wolf to his cataract surgery f/u on Monday.  All is well.  He then went to the mall with another new glasses prescription.  He has nice, thin, lenses in his frames.  These are interim and not the best.  The MD said to wait until mid-January to see the optometrist again for a final prescription.  At least he is 20/20 again. 

Geeking out on HAM

Just watched the most recent episode, from a couple nights ago, of Last Man Standing.  Tim Allen's character is a HAM and has the call sign KA0XTT.  The "XTT" is a bit of a private joke as Tim's character name on "Home Improvement" was Tim Taylor. So, ex T. T.  Yuk, yuk. 

Info on how the producer, who has a HAM license, incorporated HAM radio into the show and got the call sign.

The QSL card that is sent out:

We've not been using our radios much and I'd really have to do a review of the band plan, for one thing, if we did.  But we do have our call signs as our auto license plates. 

KF6xxx Clear.

Nexus 5

I ordered an unlocked Nexus 5 from Google on Monday night.  The site said it wouldn't ship until 3 December.  I paid for next day shipping as I was concerned to know exactly when it would be delivered. 


Then I got a notice that it had shipped at 0200 yesterday!  It arrived last night about 1930.  Wow. 

I didn't get a sim card and I'm not planning on actually using it as a phone.  I could, though. At this point I still don't feel the need for a smart phone.  But I did want a smaller PDA.  The Nexus 7 was a bit much to carry around.  It's not much thicker than the iPod Touch.  The camera is much better, especially in HDR mode.  

I spent some of last night and more time today setting it up.  Google installed all the apps I'd had on my Nexus 7.  I did have to organize the screens, though.  I also set it up to synch with local Outlook on my PC. 

Everything works great.  Such and easy set up.  Drag and drop all the files I need.  I really like it.

I needed a different podcast app as the one I was using wouldn't synch between devices.  I paid a little bit for Pocket Cast and it works so much better.  I then just dragged and dropped all my music....7 gigs worth.  None of this having to load them to iTunes.  Just select all and copy over.

The Doctor!

We spent nearly all day yesterday watching Dr. Who.  There were the pre-special live broadcasts from LA.  Then we watched the 50th Anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, live during the world-wide simulcast.  Next we logged into our UK BBC website in order to watch some videos from there.  Most notably was the very funny, Five(ish) Doctors Reboot made by #5, Peter Davison.  See it here,  even viewable from the US.  Lastly, we watched the repeat of the special over again on BBC America, fast forwarding to the added "special commentaries" by #10, #11 and others.

As with many of the best Dr. Who episodes, it was rather confusing.  All that timey-wimey stuff.

("People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff." said by #10)